Forming an assessment panel

The Council has established ten peer assessment panels: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Arts
and Disability, Community Arts and Cultural Development, Dance, Emerging and
Experimental Arts, Literature, Multi-artform, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts. The
membership of these panels rotates, with peers selected from the Pool in
response to the grant categories being
assessed.

We select peers who are both knowledgeable and representative by
balancing the following factors:

–
Artistic practice – artists and arts
professionals with different artistic styles and philosophies, respected within
their field.

–
Professional specialisation – artists and arts
professionals who perform a variety of different professional roles in the arts
that are relevant to the category.

–
Regions and communities – artists and arts
professionals from different geographical regions.

–
Gender.

–
Age – artists and arts professionals of
different generations.

Panel
Diversity

The diversity of peers on assessment panels is regularly
reported to the Nominations and Appointments Committee of the Board of the
Australia Council.

Between May 2014 and April 2017 there have been 647
artists, arts managers and advisors have peer assessed applications to our
grant programs. Of these, 24% were based in regional and remote areas, 17% were
First Nations people, 16% identified as Culturally and Linguistically Diverse,
and 5% identified with disability. Annual updates on the diversity of peers on
our panel will be published here on our website.

The names of all peers participating in an assessment
meeting are published on Council’s
website along with the list of
successful applications.

“Each of the peers bring something unique
to the conversation and all are ready to listen and respond respectfully.
It’s not accidental that you are selected to be a peer on the panel. You
are there because you have been selected for your knowledge and experience so
it is important to share this with the others.”

Mouna Zaylah, Multi-artform and Community
Arts and Cultural Development Peer, NSW